BİTLİS – Murdered journalist 24 years ago Ferhat Tepe’s father İshak Tepe told “ Some of them murder, some of them put in jail. But main aim is silencing Kurds voice. But Kurdish journalists never give up to being voice of people, quite the contrary they became stronger.”

24 years has passed over Ferhat Tepe’s murder who was journalist of Özgür Gündem Newspaper. Tepe had been kidnapped in Bitlis on July 29 of 1993 and his body had been found at the coast of Hazar Lake of Elazığ after seven days he kidnapped. Tepe’s father İshak Tepe “ Some of them murder journalists, some of them put in jail. But the main aim is silencing Kurdish People’s voice” said to dihaber.

“ The state is doing this since republic was established. But Kurdish people and journalists never took steps backward. They became stronger. Mentalities of the ones who murdered Kurdish journalist at before and who put journalists in jail right now are same” stated father Tepe.

Father Tepe reminded Brigade Commander of Tatvan Korkmaz Tağma had arranged a meeting with notables of local on July of 1993 and he had threated people by death. “ My son was kidnapped 17 days after this meeting. Commander had said ‘If you don’t take care of your children, somethings bad will happen to them. This state has power’ to us” said father Tepe.

“ My son was reporting rights violation such as burning villages, unsolved murders. That’s why state was gunning for my son. State murdered my son because it didn’t want to being known as a cruel and torturer. He was already being threatened by soldiers. He was already taken into custody and exposed to torture before he was murdered. Despite all these threatens he never give up. He wrote the truths at the cost of his life” said father Tepe.

Father Tepe remarked not even very short distance was made about my son’s murder investigation despite 24 years has passed. “ My son’s murder case was dropped due to prescription two years ago. Then we applied to European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for objection. Our objection was denied but Constitutional Court of Turkey fined Turkish State for 25 thousand Lira as it accept state killed my son. Then we applied again to ECHR and Turkey was fined again. But no one was judged in this case” said Father Tepe.